Abstract

With the publication of three significant books in 1967, La voix et le phénomène, L'écriture et la différence, and De la grammatologie, Derrida is proving himself a noteworthy figure in French philosophy, and a diversified one as well. La voix et le phénomène is a scholarly reinterpretation of Husserl centered around his theory of the sign, which Derrida sees as playing a secret but decisive role in his phenomenology. Derrida attacks chiefly two Husserlian prejudices: his theory of language as the dimension of absolute proximity-to-self, and his privileging of the "expression" meaning of the sign over the "index" meaning. These mesh with Husserl's notion of the transcendent voice present-to-itself, a central idea of his intuitionism. Thus, according to Derrida, Husserl's phenomenology really rejoins a traditional metaphysics--philosophy of presence--it had set out to criticize. This book will be valuable not only as an original interpretation of Husserl, but as a springboard into Derrida's philosophy as well.--C. M. R.